It was a bit tricky though, because I wanted the topping to be all shortening, so I divided it out first, added enough shortening to the topping amount to make it crumbly, then added the rest of the shortening and apple sauce to the main bowl. Hope that makes sense!

Do you think the topping would work out with apple sauce? That would be easier!

i made 1/4 recipe, using 2 tbs of butter and one whole egg. got 4 regular muffins. they were tasty, but we didn’t let them sit around. let them cool about 15 minutes and then ate them all, so i don’t know how they’d hold.

Wow, I’ve just read through the recipe and I’m kind of shocked: 2 cups of brown sugar for 16 muffins?
In my opinion, this is an awful lot… almost 440 grams (nearly 1 pound)!
I’m going to drastically reduce it to the half, add whole wheat flour and
cut down the butter with apple sauce (I run out of yoghurt and the shops are closed on Sunday.
I may put some rolled oats in the crumb to make it less fatty… I still don’t know how, as it would be my “première”…
if they still will taste nice ??? Let’s hope :-)

I couldn’t stomach the idea of using shortening in my muffins, so I used an equal amount of butter instead (probably not any healthier, I know, but it made me feel better). I have to say the muffins were excellent. I only made a half batch, but we ate them all rather quickly. They’re probably more like a mini coffee cake than a muffin though.

I made these this morning. I substituted butter for the shortening. They didn’t turn out right for me. They fell in the middle and the crumbs kind of melted into the top of the muffin. Looking at the video, maybe I didn’t mix the batter thoroughly enough. My batter wasn’t as smooth as Marion’s. The flavor was okay. The cinnamon and nutmeg didn’t really stand out.

I will make 1/2 recipe as written. I don’t think 1/3 cup of Crisco will do any harm. This looks like a breakfast/brunch treat, something that I will only eat on occasion. It is not my daily whole wheat toast.
I will enjoy it for what it is and eat applesauce or Greek yogurt on the side.
Don’t mean to be snarky but we are making recipes from a Masters CookBook. There are plenty of lower fat cookbooks out there, maybe a lowfat club is in order. I want to learn from the masters–then, after I have perfected their recipes I will think about altering them.

Cindy, hope you won’t hate me :-)
but in my opinion some of these recipe are “old cuisine”, when people didn’t know that transfat were dangerous for our heath, too much sugar as well….
I love baking very much – I am addicted to baking – and I’ve found that you can make very good recipes reducing fat and sugar and stay healthier…
but this is my opinion…. and as I said, hope you won’t “hate” me, ’cause I really love being part of this great BWJ family.

I usually make the recipe as instructed, however, I love reading how others have adapted the recipe and the results. I made mine with Crisco (shudder), only made 12 (threw out excess batter) and thought they were ok. My kids however, loved them.

I don’t mind Crisco for health/calorie reasons, I just don’t think it brings much to the party in the flavor department. I substituted an equal amount of butter, but it didn’t work well for me. Crisco is all fat, but butter has some water. That might be why the texture was off.

That said, I agree that these recipes aren’t made to be low-fat, and I try hard to make them as written most of the time. I agree that an occasional baked good, no matter what is in it, won’t kill anyone. Everything in moderation!

I made them yesterday & really loved them! I was out of shortening so I just used butter & I thought the crumb & flavor were great. Gave them out to friends and coworkers so there are none left to tempt me this morning! :)

That happened to me too! Next time, I use cupcake liners. I have them for every season and holiday. (it’s kind of an obsession. I also have at least 15 different colors of sprinkles and decors. Crazy, I know.)

Guess I’ll just leave my link here, too! Hope everything is okay. Maybe they just forgot :) http://cheesewithnoodles.blogspot.com/2012/11/tuesdays-with-dorie-buttermilk-crumb.html I really liked the muffins, but couldn’t get them out of the tin! Definitely use paper liners. The funny thing is that I was GOING to use them, but misread a comment here and thought someone had said she couldn’t get them out of the tin when she DID use the papers.